Mooring barge or buoy



July 29, 1952 w. ALCORN MOORING BARGE 0R BUOY 2 SPEETS-SHEE'I 1.

Filed Dec. '7, 1948 INVENTOR. IRWIN W. ALCORN AT T0 RNE Y y 29, 1952 I. w. ALCORN 2,604,866

I MOORING BARGE OR BUOY Fi led Dec. 7, 1948 2 SHEETSSHEE'I 2 FIG. 3

IN V EN TOR.

BY IRWIN w. ALCORN naw/#417 A TTORNEY Patented July 29, 1 952 MOORING BARGE on BUoY l Irwin Wyland Alcorn, Houston," Tex assignor to The Pure Oil Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Ohio Application December 7, 1948, Serial N0. 63,983 Y 2 Claims. (01.114-26) This invention relates toapparatus for mooring barges or ships in open waters. It also relates to a method of mooring a ship whereby its heading can be changed and maintained closely without casting ofi from the mooring points.

In underwater drilling operations for the production of oil, work frequently must be conducted from the decks of ships or barges and, as a consequence, the problems of mooringships and barges securely in open water are somewhat accentuated. The principal requisite is that the working surface or deck be held stable at least in heading so that operations over the side can be conducted conveniently. Thus, if piles are being driven by means of a driver mounted on the deck of a ship, the pitching or rolling of the ship caused by the natural swell of the waves will not be a serious problem, provided the heading of the ship can be maintained with reasonable facility. Similarly, when an underwater well is producing oil, it is necessary to provide a vessel for storing the oil. This can be done either by running the oil into floating storage tanks, or floating barges or tankers. Where the ordinary oil. tanker is used to collect oil produced from an underwater well, stability of workingsurfacesagain requires that the ship be moored securely so that it can be headed into the wind. The mooring, therefore, requires that the heading be variable without interruption of working operations. Similar considerations apply to the heading of a ship from the deck of which the work of fabricating a derrick or over: water structure is being conducted. 7 7

Accordingly, it is a fundamental object of this invention to provide a mooring apparatus for a ship in open water so that a ship from which drilling operations are being conducted can b moored adequately. I

It is a further object of the invention to provide a stable mooring buoy or barge.

It is a further object, of the invention to provide a mooring bar'ge lwhich can be used for the storage of cargo, either liquid or dry, and which also can serve as a working platform from which some of the underwater operations can be conducted-g5; V

Other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and in part appear hereafter. I

The invention, accordingly, includes a, buoy having an essentially barge-like structure which. is: recessed at one end to mount a pivoted sheave. adjustable in height, and is provided with anchor means near the other end so that when used for mooring a vessel, thestrain to-which it is' ;sub-" J'ected will be distributed efiiciently between: the sheave and the anchor means, The apparatus is also particularly adaptedto anovel' method of mooring a ship so that the" ship is accurately 1 held in its heading and can be adjusted therein," yet its moorings are sufliciently flexible; to' per mit pitching and rolling of the ship "with" the natural swell of the waves around'it. The structure of the apparatus and the means for accomplishing the objects of the invention will be more clearly; apparent from a study of the j following specification, with reference to the" drawings which include: Y Figure 1 is essentially an isometric projec tion of the barge showing the general 'form thereof, including the pivoted mooring sheave, the anchor means, and covers for theseveral compartments within the barge;

Figure 2 illustrates in diagrammatic, fashion the layout of lines in the novel method of moo'r ing made possible withthe structure of the in-j stant invention. 'I' v Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 33 of Figure 1 showing structural details. a .1 Referring now specifically to Figure 1,,l0'r ep' resents the body of the barge which, it 'willbe" observed, has the basic form of a parallelepiped, but has a recess II in oneend thereof,f and has theopposite end [2 finished oil? "in' inclined fashion. The purpose of'the latter will appear in the subsequent portion of the descripti on On the surface of the barge, there is provided equipment for the various operations whitest come necessary when the surface isbeihg used Y as a working platform. Thus, accessible to personnel onthe working surface are lifting eyes l3, l4, l5 and I6 neartheseveral corners of the surface so that the barge can bes eized by grappling hooks and raised from water or lowered intoit Likewise, at the several cornerspf the barge, there are provided cleats l l 18,; ligand 20 for the fastening ofv such-Iines asymay; be needed. The degree v of compartmentationg adopted inthe barge. willvary with the: purposes T for which-the interior thereof inight be 'desired; to be-used, for the barge can bel usedjas -a work-= ing surface and the interior forcarrying cargo, either dry or liquid in form. A reasonablefand useful amount of compartmentation is indicated and 2 6, which provide access; to interior com partments into which the barge: is; divided by bulkheads.

3 Also accessible from the surface of the barge are anchor lugs 21 and 28 which have matching anchor eyes 29 and 31 (29 only shown in Figure 1) located near th bottom of the barge. It will be seen that the arrangement is such that the anchor line can be suspended from the lugs, passed through the eyes, and the two portions of the line joined beneath and to the rear of th barge, thereby aligning the resultant of these forces with the pull on the sheave. On the stern of the barge, there is provided a tow lug 32 by means of which the barge can be towed to the position where it is to be anchored. When operations.

from the barge have been completed, the vessel can be towed and beached ashore forth'eforward end of the vessel under towing conditions is the inclined face l2.

Within the recess H on the barge, there ismounted a base plate 33 carrying a hinge or pivot 34,,which in turn carries a plate 35 mounting a sheave use, which" does notiektend appreciably outside of the recess. Tofperniit adjusting'the position or the'sheavetoarai's'ed or lowered level, an' eye 40 and adju'sftable'stops 31' and 38 along the inner sides of the recess are provided so that' the chock 39 on which the sheave rests can be adjusted. in level in accordancewith the'needs of the mooring operation; v p

For mooring a vessel; the use of the moorin barge" or buoy is best" understood by reference to Figure 2 wherein represents a vessel, such as a tanker or a ship frorn'whichthe drilling or pile driving'ope'ration is'being conducted. For greatest stability,it is necessary that the ship be headed into the wind, thejdirection of which is indicated by arrow'iilt" The location of the operation'is indicated bybl'o ck 52 and wo'rkingcrane 53 mounted on the deck of the" ship". To moor the ship securely, line'154 is passed from the point 55' on the deck of the ship, around the sheave 3B of the anchored mooring barge indicated as 56, and returned to the ship as 51 tobe tied at point 58. A similar arrangement is made by means of line 59 passing from point 60 to barge GI and returning as 62 to be tied area. From the stern of the vessel, similar ties can be made by means, of line 64; barge 65 and line 66, and

mien, barge' 68 and line 69.

From this method of mooring; it will be seen that the heading of theship can be held sguare- 1y into the wind with considerablg'stability and the only motion to which it will be" subjected will be the pitching and rolling produced by the swelling of the waves around it. When thewind shifts; the heading of the ship can be altered quite easily by adjustment of the several moorin'g line's. Thus,- if the wind shifts'toth direction indicated as 10, the ship can be headeddnto the wind by slacking line 54' and taking up line 51, while slacking line 59 and taking up line 62. At essentially the same time, the stern of the ship can also be brought around by slacking line; 64 and taking up onlin 66 and slacking line" 61 andtaking upon line 69. Inthis operation, it will be seen that the relative'location of the derrick performing the operations over working space 52 is changed very little, if it is at all;-

thereby making it possible to continue work dur ing the period th heading of the ship'ls being Shifted. 7

It is apparent; that the size of the apparatus 4 used-precludes manual operation of the various lines 54, 51-, 5'9, 62,

v I 64, 66 61 and 8 9 in most cases, if not in all.

Therefore, the best solution of four winches operating simultaneously makes it possible to turn the ship in continuous movement... Adjustment of the position of the ship can also be made by releasing a clamp. letting out slack and taking in the slack on a corresponding winch. The advantage of using the quick release clamp and the hinged sheave on the buoy or barge for tying again shows up when the work operation has been completed and the ship has to be moved, for the problem of casting off from the mooring point is much-simplified in that the wire clampis released and'the rope taken up-by means of the power winch without the-necessity of having to send personnel to the mooring barge to cast off. Because the movement of personnel from ship to platforms over water is one ofthe most difficult, hazardous and vexing prob ems in the underwater drilling andrecovery of" 611; the combination of the mooring barge with hin'gd' sheave and the method of tying described con stitute a marked advantage in recovery opera tions.

From this brief descriptioi'i of the invention and the embodiment thereof, it will be a parent 'justable stops between said opposing sides of-th open end of said recess, a chock movably fastened to said stops, a base plate at the rearof said recess, said base plate having'piv'otable means 'se-"- cured thereto holding a rotatable sheave, said chock contacting said pivotable means iii-support ing relationship. r

2. A mooring barge comprising a watertight vessel having a recess in one end, a sheave are: posed in said recess, means mounting said sheave for bodily pivotal movement relative to' said vessel about a generally horizontal axis at thebackof said recess, and an adjustable support means across the open part of said recess for position ing said sheave.

IRWIN WYLAND ALGCRN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the,

file of this patent:

UNITED STATES sir-ears 

